A Break from the Rain

This is November and the rainy season should have been over in September or October. It only rained all day once this summer, but we were all tired of the "constant" rain. There is still a line of storms running from the Pacific right through the middle of Mexico. And we are in store for more this week.

It started raining on Friday when we were at the Regional Museum (old San Franscisco monastery) for a harpsicord (clavecin) and flute concert with Pierre, Sophie and Antoine, and it did not let up until Saturday afternoon, and then it drizzled until night. It was, in a word, intolerable. (Amazing how fast you get over the humidity and rain in Atlanta.) This morning, Sunday, it was partly cloudy, and after a long day of rain yesterday I was getting cabin fever so we collected Shelly and Lee and headed to San Juan del Rio.

We pass SJR on our bus trips into Mexico City, and it always looks a little too industrial from the toll road, but we had heard it was nice so we gave it a try. It was really very, very nice (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomwheaton/sets/72157594372835270/). Not something for the average American tourist or San Miguelito, but the architectural detail is better and more numerous than in Querétaro, there are wide streets (must have been laid out in the nineteenth century), plazas, parks and churches. In ways, it looks more like a city than Querétaro. Like Querétaro, it is also very clean and well taken care of. We are beginning to think that being clean and well taken care of is not just something for the city of Querétaro, but may be for the entire state. Guanajuato and San Luis Potosi states are pretty run down and do not appear to be well managed in comparison.

Did we make a mistake getting a house in Querétaro? I don't think so, but in 20 years when Qro. is jammed full of people and struggling with the infrastructure and water supply, it might be time to move, and San Juan del Rio might be the place.

At the main church in town, Saint John the Baptist, a lady was selling molcajetes, the three-legged mortars and pestles used to make Mexican sauces. Mole is from Nahuatl for sauce and cajete is Spanish for bowl. I bought a used one recently, but it was too small to make enough sauce, so I had been looking for a larger one. These were larger and in the shape of pigs (the newest fad in molcajetes, apparently). They are fine grained stone, and somewhat soft, for a stone. The lady had brought them all the way from Toluca, about a half day's bus ride. The price was considerably lower than in Querétaro, $130 MX, so I bought one and put it and a mano in my backpack. Must have weighed a ton. Later, at home, I broke it in by grinding rice in it, and to my delight it was easier to break in than the mano I had bought for the little molcajete. I can now become a sauce expert, maybe. I will try out the recipe we got when we went to the restaurant in Cadareyta a month or two ago with Faye when she visited with her daughter, Melissa.

After having lunch and walking around, we headed to Amealco about 30 km away. I cannot remember why Amealco sticks in my mind from 30 years ago, but since we have been back I have felt we should visit it. On our way, we happened on the Cañon del Galindo(?) in an otherwise flat upland terrain. It is not the grand canyon, but it is about 150 meters deep, impressive and very green with all the RAIN we have been having (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomwheaton/sets/72157594372786515/).

Amealco gives you the feeling of an old, traditional, indigenous town. It would not be out of place in upland Peru or Venezuela. It too is clean and well-maintained and worth a longer visit someday.

We then decided to take the back road via Huimilpan to Querétaro. Huimilpan, too, is neat and clean. Small, but worth a longer visit. Between Amealco and Huimilpan are some tree-lined streams with potential picnic areas, plus some nice scenery to sketch and paint. Yeah, I am getting back into watercolor mode, which I left in the early 70s after we left Puerto Rico.

The whole part of the state south of the Querétaro-Mexico City toll road is really very scenic with more trees than the center of the state and north into San Luis Potosi combined. We will be back.

This week is the big one. We should close on the sale of our house in Atlanta, get a final plan and estimate from Miguel, and make a few changes to the Niños y Niñas website; and we will be having Edgardo and his wife to our house for dinner tomorrow. He is the author of the book on the history of the barrios of Querétaro, plus another couple dozen other books on history, anthropology, etc. He teaches Christiane's culture classes on archaeology, history, anthropolgy, etc. Am I a little intimidated about discussing such weighty topics in my limited Spanish? You bet!